Patent · US Expired

Method for improving waveform digitization and circuit for implementing said method

US5568144A · kind A · utility

8Cited by
7References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 1, 1994
Grant dateOct 22, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 1, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03M1/186
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and circuit for improved digitization of waveforms having a large dynamic range, including selecting a signal threshold value which partitions the dynamic range of the waveform into a small signal region and a large signal region; sampling the waveform to obtain a sampled signal therefrom at a given sampling frequency; for each sampled signal, comparing the sampled signal with the signal threshold value to determine whether the sampled signal is within the small signal region or the large signal region; and directly digitizing the sampled signal if the sampled signal is within the small signal region or differentially digitizing the sampled signal if the sampled signal is within the large signal region, wherein differentially digitizing the sampled signal includes digitizing a value representing the difference between the sampled signal at a present sampling instant and a previous sampling instant. One bit of each word of the digitized signal is reallocated to indicate whether it represents a directly or differentially digitized signal to enable the waveform to be digitally reconstructed in a data processing device.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.